Jews are not White!
OK, in America, Jews are mostly considered to be White and it is a mostly correct thought based on American racial thought. Of course, it is not actually correct because Jews can be any race and are, in fact of every race imaginable. If you looked at me, you would call me White which is the race category I choose on census forms. My synagogue, my Jewish friends, and my children’s Jewish friends include Jews of all races.
That being said, the Nazis among us do not grant Jews the status of being White. So, really, most American Jews are really White adjacent. We lose our White status as soon as the antisemites decide it is no longer convenient for them. Our whiteness has been and always will be conditional.
In Europe, historically, Jews were treated as an underclass minority, no different than how America has treated African-Americans.
Jews are, in fact, indigenous to Israel. That this reality is denied by anyone is, in fact, antisemitism at its core. There are mountains of evidence to the fact that Israel was Jewish from the Dead Sea scrolls, the Roman era shekels, to the remains of the Temple at the Temple Mount, the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, the Jewish prayers, etc. are all evidence that Israel is the original land of the Jewish people. The majority of Jews in Israel are native to the Middle East.
And, if a Jew tells you that something you say is antisemitic, trust them. Antisemitism is baked into Christian and Islamic thought. A lot of things that people say are antisemitic that Jews often let go because it is not worth the time to have that conversation. Many of us are willing to have that conversation now because our lives are being repeatedly threatened.
Antisemitism has always been a problem in the US. Our synagogues and community centers are heavily fortified because we are always being threatened by some crazy who just wants to kill Jews. When we do not have tight security, attacks like the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh occur. The reality is that while we like most of non-Jewish America, we don’t really trust most of you to protect us when attacks start. The last 7 weeks has shown us who are friends really are and there are not that many of you.
The Arab community in Israel, West Bank, and Gaza were the settler-colonizers hundreds of years ago forcing the remaining Jewish community to either convert to Islam or be subject to second-hand status.
It is also true that by World War I, there were more Arabs than Jews in Israel. IMHO, what really angers non-Jews is that when the world tried to exterminate the world’s Jews (first by the Nazis and then by the Arabs) within a 20-year period, they failed. The Arab community in particular cannot handle any form of success by Jews because it undermines their religion which proclaims that Islam is superior to all other religions.
Israel is not a colony and does not fit a binary settler-colonial model. The reality of Israel is akin to a Native American tribe declaring its reservation to be its own nation, the US army attacking it, and the Native state winning. Then, the US repeatedly attacking it to reconquer the territory. Just because Israel has managed to build an elite military to defend itself does not mean that they are in the wrong.
That being said, fuck Bibi and the militant settler movement. They are criminals who should be put on trial and sent to jail if convicted. From what I have personally heard from Israeli friends, Bibi is toast politically and will almost certainly lose the next election. Abusing others just because you have been abused is not an excuse. We all have the ability to choose a more moral path.
Hamas is a jihadist Islamist organization. That means it believes that only Muslims are allowed to rule and that once a territory was controlled by a Muslim state, it must always be Muslim. Furthermore, they do not recognize any non-Muslim as having any rights as a human. So, to them, there is no such thing as a crime that can be committed against an Israeli. It is a truly evil philosophy under the guise of religion that we in America have trouble comprehending because Western thought recognizes all humans as deserving of civil rights. Hamas does not accept that type of thought.
So, for there to be peace in Gaza, Hamas must be removed as the controlling power. Hamas’ leaders have repeatedly stated that they will never agree to a peace agreement with Israel and will never forego attacking Israel. So, if you believe in peace, then the only logical action is to support Israel’s efforts to remove Hamas from power.
On October 7, Hamas broke the cease-fire and attacked Israel, committing all sorts of crimes against humanity. Any cease-fire that does not return all of the hostages is a call for the death of more Israelis. It shows no respect for their lives. For true peace to exist, Hamas must be forced to unconditionally surrender. Then the healing can begin in a manner no different than Germany and Japan were able to heal and reform after World War II.